War Game
by Dragon of the lost world
Summary: When Hogwarts hosts a game of Hide and Go Seek to aliviate the fear of the Wizarding War, what will happen when everyone is hiding as the death eaters invade Hogwarts? Rating may change.


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any related stuff. However, one day I will discover her Will, and then…

A/N: the first part is a bit morbid, but it gets better later.

It would have been a perfect idea if the world was not at war. The room that the people known as the Trio found would not have been used for evil. The Dragon would not have been scared into destroying what it did. And the poor, innocent boy would not have died.

So begins the story.

It was a perfectly normal day, or a perfectly normal as it gets in the wizarding world. Hermione was reading, Harry was worrying, Ron was eating, and the Death Eaters had killed four people over the summer. Ginny glanced up to the vacant spot where Seamus had once sat, turning water to rum. The Hufflepuffs sat subdued; some looking into their goblets of pumpkin juice as though hoping their two dead companions would be born again from the orange liquid. The Ravenclaws put on a mask of cheer, in the hopes that this would help them forget the loss of the first year.

This was three months ago. Most students had gotten over the losses, though there were still occasional outbreaks of weeping from the Hufflepuffs. However, the mood in the castle was still dark, as though a rain cloud were hanging over them, waiting to add its lucid tears to the land already drenched in the student's salty sorrows. It was in the hopes of alleviating the bad feelings that Dumbledore proposed the largest scale game ever played. To some it was a ludicrous idea. To others it seemed that it was a ludicrous idea made by a madman. To others, mainly Muggle borns, it was the best thing that had happened that year at Hogwarts. And so it was that the first ever game of Whole Hogwarts Hide-and-Go-Seek Tag began.

"Attention, Attention, May I have your attention?" Dumbledore asked in vain. At this point Hagrid decided to intervene. He stood to his full, nine foot height and bellowed, "QUIET!"

Needless to say everyone followed his instruction as Dumbledore stood up to explain his rules. "The rules of the game," he said, "Are as follows: There will be eight 'go-seekers,' two from each house. They will wait in the Great Hall for fifteen minutes while the other students hide. When the time runs out, they will follow suit. When you are found, you will have the chance to run to the Great Hall and touch a table from your house. If you succeed, you may go to your dormitories, join the 'go-seekers' or hide again. If you chose the latter course, you will be given a special badge to indicate that you have been found once. If you are caught before you reach your table, you will go back to your dormitories and wait. There is no limit to the place you hide, or to the number of times, if you so chose, to change hiding places. You may use any spell, incantation, or magical object to aid in your concealment with the exception of invisibility cloaks, chameleon charms, or any spell that alters the searching ability of the 'go-seekers.' If the game lasts for more than the end of the day, we will keep playing, though lumos charms will be applied to every room and corridor. The person who is last to be found, whether or not they get tagged, will be the winner. You will have until noon tomorrow to be ready. You may now return to your dinners."

Everyone did so, and the talk was focused on the event occurring the next day. Ron had a very subtle view of the situation, and declared it with a complex, well worded sentence: "Dumbledore's barking mad!"

"Oh, I don't know," Ginny said. "It sounds like fun. Don't be so critical Ron."

"I never thought I'd find myself playing hide-and-go-seek at the age of sixteen," Hermione said. "I used to love the game when I was little though. What about you Harry, did you play it a lot?"

Harry responded, "I played it, but it was always roll reversal. One person hid, and everyone else chased. I never chased though. Always hid. And the way Dudley played it was if you get found, you get punched."

"Ouch." Ginny said sympathetically.

"I still say it's insane," Ron said. "I mean, what if you hide somewhere cramped, and no one finds you for hours?"

"Then don't hide somewhere cramped. I wonder how the 'go-seekers' are chosen?"

At this point Dumbledore stood up and declared, "The go-seekers will be chosen by drawing names out of a hat."

Ron asked Harry quietly, "Why are we using a dumb method like that?"

"I have chosen this method," Dumbledore said, "Because it was the only dumb method I could think of using."

A/N: Please review, even if you hated it, and I'll update sooner.


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